Isaac Hinds - LIFTstudios Blog

I had the chance to meet up with Team Universe overall bodybuilding champ, Chris Faildo in Las Vegas over the weekend. The last time Chris and I shot we only had about 10-15 minutes before we were booted from the gym. This time we secured a gym, the one where Jay Cutler has filmed his DVDs in the past, Gold’s Gym on Flamingo Road. We shot for about an hour and as we shot more and more people showed up. It seemed like every pro that was in town ended up being at Gold’s that morning. Chris is an awesome competitor and a lot of fun to shoot. We got some great shots and here are a couple of them from the shoot. I’ll be posting more of them later in the week…

A Figure competitor melt crossing Flamingo Road in Las Vegas. Yes kids, it’s that hot in Sin City this weekend.

I sit here awaiting my flight to Vegas and it quite honestly sucks. We boarded the plane late and now it’s going on 45 minutes late to depart. Lovely. Fortunately, I am not a carb deprived competitor or I would be livid. At least Frontier has TVs on every seat. Weee. Somebody give me a drink.

Stay tuned this weekend here on Bodybuilding.com for all your NPC USA updates. I will be making the trip to Las Vegas for the show once again this year. This is one of the best national level shows of the year and the competition is fierce.

Congrats to Andy Haman from Colorado Springs, Colorado who won the super heavyweight class as well as the overall this weekend at Master’s Nationals. Andy is now eligible for IFBB Pro Status. Andy competed at the Colorado Pro/Am contest where he placed second in his class.

Try VH-1 Celebrity Fit Club Diet Plan risk free for 10 days! Receive a free copy of “The Fat Smash Diet” by Dr. Ian Smith when signing up for program. Did you see the photos and interview from when Dr. Ian Smith stopped by the bodybuilding.com office? If not check it out!

Just one week out from NPC USAs Figure, Liza Kampstra and I decided to take advantage of her great conditioning and do a shoot. Liza and I met at Red Rocks just before sunrise; Holy moly was it early! I had to get out of bed at 4am and it took me awhile to get a move on. An iced coffee and a ripped fuel along the way helped wake me up. I finally made it to Red Rocks, which is one of the most beautiful places to see a concert in the United States, and we got to work. There had been a concert there the night before and the place reeked of beer. It was surprising how many people were up at that hour. It’s a popular destination for many people to go running in the morning and one killer workout. Any who, it was one amazing sunrise. The workers got one heck of a show when Liza stripped down to her bikini and started hitting poses.

We continued to shoot at Red Rocks for about an hour and got a number of cool shots. Once we got the shots we were after it was up to the mountains we went. The drive in the rocky mountains is always an awe inspiring one and this was no different. We stopped a couple times along the way and took a few more shots in various places that stood out. It was a great day of shooting and Liza is a very good model. Despite 1/3 of our photos not turning out because she was laughing so hard, it was productive.

Look for Liza to do well this weekend in Vegas in the Figure A class. Check out Liza’s Bodyspace page and wish her well.

Pick up the latest FLEX magazine with Ronnie Rockel on the cover. You can see my photography from the Keystone Classic with Allan Donnelly’s story to go with it. It’s still cool to see my name and work in the magazine that I grew up reading.

I wrapped up another shoot with NPC Figure competitor Krissy Chin today. Krissy and I shot once before in Chicago and she is an awesome model. We met up at her hotel and took a stroll down the street to Battery Park in New York. Krissy drew quite a few stares and turned more then a couple heads as we shot in the park. It didn’t take long before the authorities showed up and said we needed a permit to shoot. We were wrapping up any way, but it was fairly amusing because as we were leaving several people clapped and asked us what the photos were for. LOL! We laughed it off and went to another nearby location for a few more shots. Here are a couple of the pics from today.

Richard is posting up a video interview I did with Krissy shortly. RIGHT RICHARD? She looks great and I am predicting a pro card in her future this weekend.

BOOM! Colorado Contender, William Reese is 2 weeks out from the Master’s Nationals in PA. He’s 47 years old and looking his best in years. Watch out kids…